


Z> Z> 



x> ^ 



:> J* 



i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 



■ _ 

f EXITED STATES OF AMER 





> 


:<■■ 


m 


TO 
>>> 


3# ft 

► "^ -s ■> >d 


1 . 
\€>. 

m> 
z> 
o 
^> 
e> 
g> 
z> 
:> 
> 
> 
z> 
:> 
> 


- 

:: : 
:;. 

> 


w _^r — 

5 g? 





-=?- 


1 7 


^ 


_^ 


! ■ 


> 


3 

> 
^ 






~y 


^x> 




z> 


X> 




3 


:E> 




~ 5 - 


:x> 




:> 


X> 




:: 


» 




;> 


r? 




3 


D 


-- 


> 


^> 





^>1>^ 



s^^> 









BISHOP DOANE'S 



iCommruccmrut Sermon. 



h d ccc XLT. 






JESUS OF NAZARETH, 

WHO WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD, 
THE MODEL FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR THE MINISTRY 



THE SERMON 



AT THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 



yj op 

f 

THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 

OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE U. S. OF AMERICA J 



THE RIGHT REV. GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, D.D., LL.D. 

BISHOP OF NEW JEKSET.^ 




r 

SSuiifixflton: 

EDMUND MOHRIS, PRINTER. 
M D CCC XLV. 



.Ts31g 



To 

JOHN POTTER, Esa., 

of prospect, near princeton, 

a trustee for many years : 

a noble benefactor of the church; 

my kind and faithful friend. 

Rjyerside, St. Peter's Day, m d ccc xly. 



SERMON. 



ACTS X, xxxviii. 

JESUS OF JfAZARETK WHO WEST ABOUT DOI5« SOOB. 

It is but incidentally, that the Apostle says this of 
^ur blessed Saviour, and, as it were, in passing; but 
what volume could do justice to its pure and perfect 
beauty ! It had been much, if, here and there, a sick 
man had been healed, a mourner comforted, a sinner 
softened and forgiven. It had been very much, if, 
whosoever came to Him had had his sorrows soothed, 
his children blessed, his dead restored to life. How 
perfect, in the overflowing fulness of its unreserving 
self-devotion, that speaking picture of the text, He 
"went about doing good!" He sought, that He 
might save, the lost ! — He had not " where to lay His 
head." He was "despised and rejected of men." 
The very heel of him that ate his bread was lifted 
up against Him. And yet, He "went about, doing 
good, and healing all that were oppressed of the 
devil." Indefatigable, inexhaustible, unconquerable 
in love! Was it for a few sick folk, in Galilee, or in 
Judea, that this was done? The widow's son, and 
Jairus' daughter, and Mary's brother, Lazarus? A 
publican or harlot, now and then ; a dozen, or a score, 
of fishermen; "the hundred and twenty," 1 or "five 



-«Actf, l is. 



hundred," 1 at the most, who owned Him in the flesh! 
No: but for every age, and all the world; long as the 
Church shall last, far as the Church shall spread : 
"leaving us an example," the same Apostle writes, 
" that ye should follow His steps." That blessed One 
has gone, long since, to Heaven. His bare and bleed- 
ing feet traverse the earth no more, to do men good. 
"When He had spoken these things, while they be- 
held, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him 
out of their sight." 2 Not, however, till He had made 
provision, to re-produce Himself, in offices of love, to 
all the ages of our sinning, suffering, dying race, in 
that blood-purchased Church, to which He said, "Lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world," 3 "the Church which is His body;" 4 giving 
commandment to the Apostles, whom He had cho- 
sen, to "preach the gospel to every creature," 5 and 
to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them," 6 
in the eternal tri-une Name. And now, the law of 
love, living forever in that sacred line of self-per- 
petuating life, which He ordains, to save and bless 
the world ; and binding upon every living soul that 
has been gathered in, in its electric chain, is simply 
this : the Church is only, then, Christ's living Body, 
the souls of men are only, then, Its living members, 
when they reflect His living image, as St. Peter 
sketched it, "who went about doing good." "Love 
is life's only sign." 7 "Jesus of Nazareth," "who 
went about doing good, and healing all that were op- 



> 1 Corinthians, xv. 6. 2 Act?, i. 9. 3 St. Matthew, xxviii. 20. 

'Ephesians, i. 22, 23. 5 St. Mark, xvi. 15. 6 St. Matthew, xxviii. 19. < Keble. 



pressed of the devil, for God was with Him." The 
Church, to be indeed Christ's Church, must go about 
doing good. She must apply herself, with unreserv- 
ing and untiring love, to healing all that are oppres- 
sed of the devil. So shall she know, and prove, that 
God is with her, of a truth. 

The Apostle sets lefore us in few, graphic words, 
the cause, the curse, and the cure of sin : " healing all 
them that were oppressed with the devil." Through 
his seduction, sin came into the world. Bondage to 
him is its sore curse ; the iron entering into the soul, 
till it is sick, even unto death. The only healer that 
can cure and set us free, Jesus of Nazareth; and that, 
as He is crucified and killed. "It shall bruise thy 
head," whilst "thou," in thy death-struggle, "shalt" 
but " bruise His heel." 1 " The whole creation groan- 
eth and travaileth in pain together until now." 2 Not 
without sure and certain hope, however, in the re- 
demption of the Cross, of its deliverance, " from the 
bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of 
the children of God." 2 In the midst of this yearning, 
groaning, agonizing, world, the travail-pains of death 
grinding the very soul from out its life, the Church, 
as Jesus Christ, when in the flesh, is mercifully set ; 
with power from God, to heal, redeem, and save. 
In her, He says, who is, in her, Healer, Redeemer, 
Saviour, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the 
ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none 
else." 3 The suffering soul, that looks to Him, as He 
is lifted up in her, in supplicating faith, in her re- 

1 Genesis, iii. 15. 2 Romans, viii. 22, 21 3 Isaiah, x\v. 22. 



vives, and lives. The name of Jesus is as ointment 
shed on all his wounds. His word, sweeter than 
angels' music, soothes and stills the storms and sor- 
rows of his soul. His sins are washed away in the 
pure stream of living water, that flows out forever 
from His side. And, with the blood that mingles 
with it, he receives immortal nurture and eternal 
life. And, what is realized in one, is fully meant for 
all. Jesus of Nazareth, went about, healing " all that 
were oppressed of the devil. 1 ' The Church, that is 
His, must be like Him, or He owns her not. " Veri- 
ly I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me." 1 
And then, those fearful words, " these shall go away 
into everlasting punishment." 1 

Beloved brethren, have these fearful words of Je- 
sus Christ no fitness, and no claim, for us ? Are we,. 
as a Church — is each of us, as we are members of the 
Church — going about doing good ? Is there, in our 
administration of the sacred trust, which Jesus Christ 
reposes in us, healing for " all them that are oppressed 
of the devil ?" Alas, what bitter words ! What biting 
sarcasm, in the thought ! The holy Jesus " went 
about doing good." On foot, He traversed every 
acre of that blessed land ; or found the only respite of 
His weariness in some rude fisher's boat, upon the 
passionate Gennesaret. See Him, at one time, tossed 
with all the fury of its wildest storms. 2 Behold Him, 
at another, on the dreary mountain side, alone. 3 
What hearth of poverty does He not share ? What 

J St. Matth«w,xxv.45; 46. 2 St. Luke, viii. 23. 3 St. Matthew, xiv. 23. 



house of mourning does He not cheer? What bed 
of sickness, and of death, does He not soothe ? Is 
there a poor, frail woman, in Samaria, that, with all 
her frailty, has yearnings for a better hope within 
her heart ? He is sitting with her, in the hot and 
weary noon, by Jacob's well; 1 to speak to her of liv- 
ing water, that shall satisfy the soul. Has Pharisaic 
malice wreaked itself on one whose only crime was 
being with Jesus, and receiving sight from Him; 
and cast him out of its communion ? Already He 
has heard it, and has found him, 2 and has given him 
" peace " and comfort " in believing." A widow wails 
her only son. Jesus is there, to stop the bier, and 
give him back to her bereaved, broken heart. 3 Two 
sisters bear a brother to the tomb, which hides, with 
him, the light that cheered their life. In four days, 
Jesus comes, and Lazarus has risen. 4 No leper lifts 
to Him an unavailing cry. No father speaks in vain 
to Him, for a demoniac child. The hungry multi- 
tudes are fed. The ignorant multitudes are taught. 
The sinful multitudes are warned. A woman comes 
to Him, that was a sinner, and breaks a box of oint- 
ment on His feet, and wipes them with her flowing 
hair. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for 
she loved much." 5 Maternal fondness thrusts itself 
upon Him, to desire a blessing for its offspring, and 
is turned coldly off; only to be made surer of His 
gentleness, and richer in His love : " suffer the little 
children to come unto me and forbid them not ; for 



> St. John, iv. 6. ' * ii. 35. « St. Luke, vii. 15. * St. John, xi. 44. 
fi St. Luke.vii. 47. 
2 



10 

of such is the kingdom of God." 1 It was so, thai 
Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good, until He 
poured His life out upon the Cross. So literally was 
He present, " to heal all them that were oppressed 
of the devil." So manifest was God in Him. 

But, now, His Church, His living and life-giving 
Body, Himself, put in trust, of Him, with the salvation 
of the world — how does she manifest His glory? What 
are her triumphs, through the power of His amazing 
Cross ? Where are her trophies of His love and trust, 
in her ? Does she feed the hungry? Does she clothe 
the naked I Is she eyes to the blind, and feet to the 
lame? Are the children gathered all, about her 
knees, and nurtured at her breast? Does she make 
smooth the pillow of the sick ? Is every death-bed 
soothed and cheered by her ? Does she go down, to 
bear the light of hope into the cell of every felon? Does 
she go out, to be the chart and compass of the storm- 
tossed mariner? Are the words of her celestial wisdom 
heard in all the schools ? Is she invoked and owned as 
the support and consecration of all human laws and 
earthly governments ? Is she acknowledged in the 
pulses of the city's ceaseless heart, and not unfelt in 
scattered hamlet, or by rustic hearth? Are the leaves, 
which she has charge of, for the healing of the nations, 
wafted, like maple seeds, on every breeze ? Are the feet 
of her messengers prompt as the impulse of adven- 
ture, fleet as the flight of pleasure, present wherever 
men are found, for duty, or of choice ? Does she erect 
her house of prayer wherever human hearths are 

'St. Mark, x. 14. 



11 

lighted ? Are her gates open, day and night, for all 
who will, to enter in, and be with God ? Is there no 
hungry soul, that looks to her for bread, and does not 
find it ? Are there no widows, that she comforts not ? 
No orphans, that she takes not to her bosom ? Is 
there no sinner, that her voice has never warned? 
Is there no mourner, that her "oil of joy" has never 
comforted? Are there no perishing souls, whose 
blood is on her skirts? No lost, who will stand up, 
and witness, at the awful day, of her neglect of men, 
and disregard of Him who died for them ? Brethren, 
the answers to these searching questions frown upon 
our sight at every turn, and their intolerable glare 
will blind us in the day of judgment. The Church 
Is not like " Jesus of Nazareth, who went about do- 
ing good," and "healing all them that were oppressed 
of the devil;" and therefore, God is not with her, in 
light, and peace, and power. She sits and waits for 
men to come to her. She treats them coldly when 
they come. She stints them in the blessings which 
her Saviour left with her. She hides her talent in 
a napkin in the earth. She starves her children, and 
she dwarfs herself. When she might be the joy of 
the whole earth, she is scarcely counted of, among 
the nations. When she should be the light of the 
world, the flame upon her altars seems glimmering, 
to go out. Men are forced from her scant fountain, 
to the broken cisterns of the world. She fails to en- 
force her godly discipline, and they resort to Tem- 
perance Societies. She disregards the law of mu- 
tual love, and they associate in Masonic Lodges and 
Odd Fellowships. She casts away from her the 



12 

strength and comfort of sacred communities, and re- 
ligious brotherhoods, and they are tempted to the 
parallelograms of Owen, or the phalanxes of Fourier. 
"What are love feasts, and class meetings, but cold, 
faint shadows of the ancient intercourse of Christian 

. piety and love ? What are anxious seats, and ex- 
perience meetings, but the clumsy counterfeits of 
primitive practice, in the meekness, and humility, and 
"unreserve of an encouraged, but uncompelled, con- 
fession; seeking of them w T hom Christ has authorized 
to bind and loose for Him, "such godly counsel and 
advice, as may tend to the quieting of his conscience, 
and the removing of all scruple and doubtfulness?" 1 
Why should a Church, that is corrupt in doctrine 
and idolatrous in worship, appropriate the heir-looms 
of the elder days, in sisters of charity, and brother- 
hoods of mercy? Why should a Church, which 
makes her constant and her confident appeal to an 

' intelligent examination of her standards and her for- 
mularies, in the clear light of the most ancient times, 
proverbially neglect the thorough training of her 
children, in religious knowledge? Why should a 
Church, whose members are abundant in the riches 
of this world, and who go before their neighbours in 
the things which gratify the sense and taste, grudge of 
the crumbs that fall from her full table, and leave 
the ministry to starve, the altar to decay? There 
are no worthy answers to these questions, short of 
penitent confession, and positive assurance of amend- 
ment. For want of this, God turns His face away. 

1 Invitation to the Holy Communion, in the Book of Common Prayer. 



13 

There may be outward seeming, and numerical in- 
crease. But love is wanting, and so life. We have 
not peace at home. We have not strength abroad. 
We see not "eye to eye." We clasp not hand to 
hand. We beat not heart to heart. We are not 
"with one accord," as they of old time, "in prayer 
and supplication." 1 We stand not fast, like that 
Philippian phalanx, " in one spirit, with one mind, 
striving together for the faith of the Gospel." 2 Our 
onward march loiters and lags. The ground we oc- 
cupy is occupied with doubt and insecurity. The 
glow of confidence is wanting to our hearts. Our 
faces beam not with the light of hope. The Lord 
goes not with us to battle. And so Victory sits not on 
our banner. 

My brethren, with the beautiful example, which 
the text presents, before us, while abounding grace, 
to make it real, and to make it ours, waits our ac- 
ceptance, we are without excuse if we continue long- 
er as we are. Let us betake ourselves to fervent 
prayer, that God will mercifully raise up His power, 
" and come among us, and with great might succour 
us," 3 Especially, let us beseech Him, to send His 
Koly Ghost, and " pour into our hearts, that most 
excellent gift of charity, which is the bond of peace, 
and of all virtues." 4 We have from God the doc- 
trines of His Gospel, in their purity; the order of His 
Church, in its perfection. We need more faith. 
We need more love. We need the "faith which 



1 Acts, i. 14. 2 Philippians, i, 27. 3 Collect for fourth Sunday in 

Advent. 4 Collect for Quinquagesima Sunday. 



14 

works by love." Faith, to deny ourselves, and bear 
the Cross. Faith, to take all God's word, and to wait 
all God's time. Faith, to look off from flesh and 
sense, and to cast all our confidence on Christ. 
Faith, to encounter opposition. Faith, to endure af- 
fliction. Faith, to make light of tribulation. Faith, 
to sell all we have, and give to the poor, and find 
treasure in heaven. Faith, to cast down all earthly 
thoughts, and human things, before the Cross's foot; 
bringing all "into captivity to the obedience of 
Christ." "Looking unto Jesus," as "the Author 
and Finisher of our faith," 1 we shall reflect His pu- 
rity, and catch the fervour of His love. It will con- 
sume in us all selfish and all sensual thoughts. It 
will inflame us with the ardours of an all-embracing 
and an all-enduring charity. We shall crucify our- 
selves, with Him, upon His Cross ; and so be raised, 
and reign with Him, upon His throne. 

My dear young brethren, who are to go forth from 
these sacred walls, to-day, to mingle with the world, 
and, as the servants of the Cross — if God shall please, 
its ministering servants — to help us in our holy work, 
of winning souls for Jesus Christ ; to you, in this be- 
half, I most especially appeal. Your entrance on 
the crowded stasre of human life is at a most event- 
ful period, for the trial of your spirits. It is an age 
of steam, and stir, and strife. An age, whose rapid 
progress in all physical developments threatens to 
sensualize the soul. An age, in which the work of 
generations is atchieved in single days. An age of 

1 Hebrews, xii. 2. 



15 

rapid gains, and rapid losses, of change, and chance, 
unsettled, and unsettling; contemptuous of prece- 
dents, and greedy only for the new. In such an 
age, the Church must be severely tried. The Church 
is old. The Church is calm. The Church is steady. 
The Church is heavenly, and for heaven. Let no- 
thing tempt you from her peaceful, heaven-protected 
precincts. Be not seduced by any show of new ex- 
periments. Be not elated by any flattering thought 
of individual effort, or of individual influence. Man 
was not made to be alone. Man has a social nature. 
The Church was made for man, as he is social in his 
nature, that so his social nature may be one with 
God. In her, God sets His word. In her, God stores 
His grace. She is established on the Rock of ever- 
lasting Ages. She is compacted by the trials of near 
twenty centuries. She is the living Body of the 
ever-living Lord ; and the true life is in her, for all 
that live by faith in Him. Admitted, in His infinite 
mercy, to be partakers of such grace, and heirs of 
such a hope, give yourselves frankly up to Him, to 
wait, and do His will. In humbleness, in holiness, 
in self-denial, in willingness to bear, in readiness to 
do, in cheerfulness to suffer, be followers of Him, 
whose meat and drink it was to do His Father's will ; 
who went about to do men good. The Church's 
glorious and tremendous trust, for Jesus Christ, is in 
the souls for which He died. The Church's work is, 
therefore, spirit-work. Not to be done amid the heat 
and noise of controversy ; not to be done through the 
polemic rage of pamphlets and of newspapers ; not to 
be done in the Conventions and Councils of the 



16 

Church. It must be done in private. It must be 
done in the closet. It must be done in the sanctu- 
ary. It must be done in schools. It must be done 
in families. It must be done in parishes. It must 
be done, in the room of sickness. It must be done in 
the death-chamber. It must be done, with soul to 
soul : teaching with the wisdom which is from God ; 
drawing with the cords of a man. The qualifica- 
tions for it are not such as shine in courts, or camps; 
or fit for commerce, or diplomacy, or legislation. The 
men that do it, must be men of thoughtfulness and 
prayer. They must be humble-minded men, that 
count themselves as less than nothing, but as Christ 
supplies their strength. They must be men, whom 
nothing human, nothing earthly, can remove from 
their allegiance to the Cross. In a word, they must 
be as Barnabas, good men, and "full of faith and of 
the Holy Ghost," if they would add much people to 
the Lord. To go about, to do men good, must be 
their mark and aim. To deny themselves in per- 
sonal indulgence : to deny themselves in the domes- 
tic charities : to forego, if need require, the cheerful 
joy of wife and children, that they may please Him 
who hath chosen them to be His soldiers; and, in 
any case, to make it secondary to the holy warfare, 
which they war : to make no account of station or 
emolument: to make no account of climate or socie- 
ty : to make no account of effort or of self-denial : to 
make no account of health, or life : to work, if so 
alone the gospel can be preached, with their own 
hands, like holy Paul, that no man be at charges for 
them; and to know nothing, in all their service for 



17 

the Church, but Jesus Christ, and Him as crucified, 
must be their strength, their glory, and their joy. 
The Church's work, my dear young brethren, accu- 
mulates upon her hands. She is now ages in arrears. 
The world outruns her, and so runs to ruin. To ar- 
rest the headlong hurry of this fearful race is the 
great problem of our age. Men take no time to 
think. Men take no time to study. Men take no 
time to pray. They hasten, for they know not what, 
they know not whither; and, in their heat and hurry, 
rush into the grave. To win them, through the 
grace of Christ, to better thoughts and better things, 
you, if it please God to receive you to His ministry, 
will now go forth. To be successful with them, you 
must win their confidence. Not by concessions to 
their errors. Not by any compromise with their 
worldliness. Not by partaking in their sins. But 
by convincing them that you seek them, not theirs. 
By proving to them that your only effort is to save 
their souls. To do so, you must watch for every op- 
portunity of good. You must be instant in season, 
and out of season. You must win them by consid- 
eration for their personal comfort. You must win 
them by being interested in their personal interests. 
You must win them by sympathy with their domes- 
tic joys and sorrows. You must win them through 
their children ; as the shepherd leads the flock, by 
carrying, in his arms, the new-dropped lamb. Think 
of the blessedness of your immortal work. Think of 
its present comfort. Think of its everlasting glory. 
Think that you are fellow-workers in it, with all 
the sacramental host of God's elect; with the innu- 



18 

merable company of angels; with the Holy Ghost, 
the Comforter. Think, that, to do so, is to be as 
"Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who went about doing 
good." And think, how He will smile upon you, 
from His throne, and that dear smile beam heaven 
upon your soul, if only one, and that the least ac- 
counted of, of men, shall so be won to Him: "verily, 
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me." 



\ 






> ^ 3 



^ > £ 

> > y 
^>>5 ^ > ■ > ^ 

-■> - *s . ' s» > .-- 



_J*> 


-Xfc^I 


^ >> 


>>3 1 


^>> 


^*" 


§»is> 






^ 


-^ >:> 




r^S 




> >J 


:2*> 


Ij^ 5 


— * L> 


■-» LS» 


22>> 


-Z2S> 


s^ 


- 


2»> 


^^ 


> -> 


> a» > 


3> 


3K; 







5 s - 






■ 






.-»» .-->, 



i>3 



► -. ^>v> ■■■- 
ITS > ~~ 









' > :> 
--> • :> 



55 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 168 954 9 



